Dental procedures and/or examinations often require a dentist and/or dental hygienist to work under numerous limitations, primarily among them being restricted physical access available for performing dental procedures within a patient's mouth and limited ambient light. For example, during dental procedures, the patient's mouth must often times receive a dental hand instrument, a dental drill unit, a saliva ejection tube to evacuate particulates and/or saliva from the patient's mouth during the dental procedure, which typically require assistance of a another person, such as a dental assistant. In addition, use of dental accessories (e.g., light sources, tongue depressors, dental mirrors, etc.) is occasionally required.
Use of optoelectronic devices having external light sources (e.g., an overhead light source, a dentist head-mounted light source, etc.) require alignment of the external light source and/or the patient's head to be periodically adjusted during a dental procedure. Periodic realignment of either the patient's head or an external light source often requires the dentist to be distracted and, is at best, cumbersome. Frequently, dental instuments, used during dental procedures, often block or create shadows that prohibit external light from reaching an associated mirror and/or a work area needing light to aid in the procedure being performed.
Prior attempts to introduce a light source, that emit light or provide luminous emittance from inside the patient's mouth, add further obstruction and/or limit access for performance of dental procedures and typically required use of two hands, or a dental assistant, to attach or remove the light source. Known illuminated dental mirrors include light sources that generate unacceptable heat. Moreover, prior attempts to introduce an inter-oral light source, from which the light is emitted, from within a patient's mouth have not accounted for the need to periodically sterilize the light source after every use.
Prior attempts to introduce illuminated dental instruments inside a patient's mouth included associated instruments having rough surfaces and/or couplers with crevices to which bacteria and blood attached. Prior attempts also failed to project high enough LUX with an acceptable color temperature (Kelvin) to aid in trans-illumination of teeth for assistance in diagnoses. Furthermore, attempts to use a lighted dental mirror for long periods of time or hours of continuous use in a dental practice each and every day have been cost prohibitive and unreliable. Hence, an illuminated dental instrument (e.g., an illuminated dental mirror, an illuminated dental wedge, an illuminated dental bite block, an illuminated dental pick, etc.) assembly which overcomes these drawbacks would be advantageous.